The System jumped in agitation, 【How dare he mock you, Host! Quickly put him in his place. The shop has fast-acting heart pills to help you maintain your heart’s vitality. They only cost 600 Luck Points.】
A small ceramic gourd bottle of fast-acting heart pills appeared on the light screen.
Su Nuannuan cursed the profiteer and clicked to pay.
【Purchased one bottle of fast-acting heart pills. Remaining Luck Points: 500】
A small porcelain bottle appeared in Su Nuannuan’s palm. She discreetly slipped it into her pocket, her clear dark eyes turning toward Lu Mingyuan.
“Risk and reward go hand in hand. I’m risking my life to help you, so you must pay the corresponding price. A few hundred yuan isn’t enough to buy my life.”
Standing up, the girl’s back was straight, her face displaying a cool indifference she had never shown before.
Ji Xiao was stunned. Risk and reward go hand in hand? How could a slacker like her say something so profound?
Two years apart, she really seemed to have grown up.
“What do you want?”
Su Nuannuan curled her lips slightly. “Stay with me tonight, and I’ll agree.”
Her bright, clear eyes shimmered like water, resembling a cunning and dangerous fox, both sly and perilous.
“Pfft!” Lu Mingyuan spat out a mouthful of water, a blush rising on his fair face.
He wiped the corner of his mouth and looked at Ji Xiao with a half-smile. “Regiment Commander Ji is quite the lucky man. For the sake of the mission, I’ll have to trouble you to make this sacrifice.”
Ji Xiao looked like a chick with its neck squeezed, his entire face flushed and steaming.
“You… Su Nuannuan, what madness are you up to again? Change the condition. I can’t agree to this.”
“No change. Didn’t you say that national interests come above all else? Have you forgotten what you just said, Regiment Commander Ji?” Su Nuannuan crossed her arms, her tone lightly mocking. “So Regiment Commander Ji is just like that—strict with others, lenient with himself.”
The boomerang struck back at him. Ji Xiao’s face turned pale, his hands on his knees clenched tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hands. His sharp, hawk-like eyes glared fiercely at Su Nuannuan.
“I’m your brother!”
Su Nuannuan raised a finger to her lips, her innocent face now seductive and alluring. “Shh, how could you forget again? You’re surnamed Ji, I’m surnamed Su. We can never be family.”
“Think it over carefully, Regiment Commander Ji. I’m going to cook.”
Leaving the two stunned men behind, Su Nuannuan turned and walked toward the kitchen.
First, she checked the vegetable basket: tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, eggs, and surprisingly, a whole chicken.
Su Nuannuan raised an eyebrow. “Quite the luxury, having meat.”
Outside, people fought over a single piece of meat until their faces turned red, yet Lu Mingyuan managed to get a whole chicken.
Damned authoritarianism!
With a swift motion of the knife, the chicken was beheaded, its head rolling to the side.
The chicken was evenly split in half: one half for soup, the other half for braising. With a side of cold cucumber salad, the meal was set.
Su Nuannuan worked swiftly and skillfully in the kitchen. In her previous life, to save up for tuition, she juggled five part-time jobs, one of which was assisting a chef at a five-star hotel.
After five years as an assistant, her knife skills had become flawless. Impressed by her diligence, the chef taught her many private recipes, including some lost imperial dishes.
Today, she was preparing Kung Pao chicken and chrysanthemum chicken soup, both from the imperial cuisine repertoire.
The firewood burned brightly, with both stoves lit—one for simmering the soup, the other for stir-frying.
Her spatula moved so fast it seemed to blur. To complete the task, she was pulling out all the stops.
In less than forty minutes, two dishes and a soup were ready.
Su Nuannuan wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Done.”
The System smacked its lips, drooling, 【Wow, that looks so delicious, Host. I didn’t know you could cook. But Lu Mingyuan is extremely picky and rarely praises anyone. Are you confident, Host?】
【We’ll know once we try.】
The aroma wafted through the courtyard. The two men in the living room swallowed hard, their Adam’s apples bobbing. Ji Xiao craned his neck toward the kitchen. “What’s that smell? It’s so rich and enticing.”
Lu Mingyuan’s gaze drifted, and the newspaper in his hand remained unturned for a long time.
Seeing Su Nuannuan bring out the dishes, Ji Xiao leaped up and strode over, his eyes fixed on the colorful, fragrant, and perfectly cooked food on the plate. “You can cook too?”
Su Nuannuan glanced at him and walked past him. “What else? Did you think ghosts cooked for you all these years?”
The original host had worked as a nanny for the Ji family for eight years, cooking and washing clothes every day, only for Mother Ji to take all the credit in the end.
It was truly pitiful and infuriating.
Thud.
Su Nuannuan slammed the plate onto the table, picked up a glass of water from the table, and drank it in one gulp. “If you want to eat, help yourselves. The rice is in the kitchen. Serve yourselves however much you want.”
Don’t expect her to serve him tirelessly like the original host did.
The original host was in the late stages of a love-struck obsession. For Ji Xiao’s sake, she treated the Ji family like gods, working herself to the bone from the age of eighteen until she became a worn-out woman, nearly drained of vitality—yet she never earned even a hint of kindness from Ji Xiao.
Lu Mingyuan watched her pick up the glass and raised his hand to stop her, but before he could speak, she had already finished it.
His thin lips pressed into a straight line, his brows furrowed tightly.
That was the glass he had just drunk from…
He silently withdrew his hand. Forget it, she’s already drunk it. There’s no point saying anything now. I’ll just avoid it in the future.
Su Nuannuan ignored the two men, picked up her own bowl of rice, and buried her head in her meal, eating earnestly.
As the chicken entered her mouth, she squinted her eyes in bliss and quickened her pace with the chopsticks.
It was truly authentic free-range chicken—tender, firm, and elevating the dish to perfection.
The rich aroma filled the living room. Ji Xiao gulped hard, dashed to the kitchen, filled a large bowl with rice, and rushed back to the table.
He eagerly picked up a piece of chicken.
As it entered his mouth, his entire body froze, his pupils widening in shock.
Delicious!
The perfect blend of salty, savory, sour, and sweet flavors, combined with the natural aroma of the chicken, was simply flawless!
“This… this is too delicious, Nuannuan. Your cooking skills are even better than the chefs at the state-run restaurants.” Ji Xiao pushed the other set of bowls and chopsticks across the table.
“Mingyuan, you have to try this. It’s absolutely amazing.”
Half a chicken wasn’t much to begin with. The two of them buried their heads in their meal, and before long, more than half of the Kung Pao chicken plate was gone.
Was it really that delicious?
Lu Mingyuan hesitated for a moment before picking up a piece and placing it in his mouth, his movements elegant and refined.
“Hmm?”
Behind his glasses, his peach blossom eyes flashed with amazement. This flavor…
He picked up another piece, and the familiar taste spread in his mouth.
He glanced deeply at the young girl who was eating with gusto—her hair dry and yellowish, her appearance ordinary, her figure as thin and underdeveloped as a withered bean sprout.
Yet someone like her could cook Kung Pao chicken, a secret imperial dish.
The corners of his lips lifted almost imperceptibly. His gaze shifted to the steaming chicken soup beside him, its milky-white surface dotted with a few chrysanthemum petals, elegant and beautiful.
Chrysanthemum chicken soup?
Interesting. Two imperial secret dishes at once. What exactly was this girl’s background?
His slender fingers picked up a ladle, scooped two spoonfuls for himself, and took a sip. His eyes lit up.
She lifted her head and finished the soup, then served herself another bowl, drinking three bowls in a row before stopping.
Su Nuannuan had been observing Lu Mingyuan out of the corner of her eye, and seeing this, she secretly curled her lips—success.
The System was hopping with anxiety. 【Success what? The food is almost gone, and he hasn’t said a single word of praise. The mission is about to fail.】
【What’s the rush? Did the mission rules set a time limit?】
The System felt as if it had grown a brain. 【Seems not.】
【Stop fussing, go play somewhere else.】
Su Nuannuan earnestly finished the last grain of rice in her bowl, sipping her soup while watching the two with great interest.
“Was it delicious?”